Njikwa, Dead-end District
It takes 70.000 francs cfa to transport a woman in labour from Ngo’oh in Njikwa Subdivision to Acha, or Bamenda – a distance of just over 50 km and corpses have to travel motorcycle class to get to their final resting places.
By Bertrand Shancho Ndimuh
Ngo’oh and Njinkwa have remained in this same exact situation for as long as anyone cares to remember. The landscape scenery is not only breathtaking but could be a paragraph from a fairy tale. However, the rundown roads in Njikwa inspire fears of travel. Life in Njikwa is fed largely on despair and disaffection of the wretched rural population, the poverty-bound Njikwans who have nothing else to cling on but their lives.
Neglect and other difficulties have reduced a potentially rich subdivision in the North West Region to a dead-end district.
“If I had the opportunity to meet the Head of State, I would shout at the top of my voice about the state of roads and health services here. For example, if we have a labour case here, we have to hire a car to take the woman to Acha and sometimes to Bamenda, and the fare from here to Bamenda is over 70.000 francs cfa. Sometimes it becomes so difficult that we have to carry corpses on motorcycles,” said Serika Lucas, a notable of Ngo’oh village.
Serika is also the Quarter Head of Nkun.
The Ngo’oh people originated from Widikum and are highly engaged in farming cocoa, cocoa yam, beans, plantain, tomatoes and other produce, which they sell at Kuttin, Ngieh and Nkun local markets.
Some of the produce find markets in neighbouring towns like Mbengwi and Bamenda. But the economic status of the area remains low as often the crops are destroyed by pests and diseases or do not reach the markets due to bad road infrastructure.
“Our crops are sometimes destroyed by insects. When we plant tomatoes, they are affected by blight and some of us don’t usually know what to do. The roads too are deplorable; you saw them yourself. Consequently, most of what we produce get rotten because there is no means to get them to the desired market,” Serika told The Green Vision.
Although Njikwa today is nothing more than a dream, the people are quite hospital.
“We have Muslims and the Bororo who are mostly cattle grazers living here with us. We have had problems between them and the farmers but this was resolved as we allocated them the hills while the farmers use the valleys for agriculture,” Serika said.
Being a forest adjacent community, the Ngo’oh people are expert trappers, hunters and cattle keepers. Serika said they hunt and trap rabbits, rat moles, squirrels and many other animals, which are either consumed locally or smoked and sold to neighbouring towns, near and far.
This practice has greatly reduced animal population in this part of the country.
“We have witnessed much reduction in the population of animals in this area. At first, we could trap Cutting Grass and squirrels in our backyards but now it is difficult to get one. Monkeys were really many in the forest but now you need to go deep into the forest to find one,” Serika told The Green Vision.
Although Ngo’oh might be nothing but a small dream in a larger nightmare, Serika said education especially of the girl-child has greatly improved in the village.
He said they used to think that education was not only for boys but for the most stubborn ones as obedient ones stayed at home to take care of animals and assist in tapping.
“But time has changed and for the last 40 to 50 years we don’t have any problem sending children to school be it a boy or a girl. It is true that we have had disappointment from girls like early pregnancies but we have also had successful ones,” said Serika.
According to Serika, the successes of some sons and daughters of Ngo’oh in different occupations drive the growing interest in education.
He said they can boast of the just retired North West Regional Delegate of Secondary Education, Awuru, over eight medical practitioners, two medical doctors and others working in different fields over the country.